Moonlight: I

His return

I stop at the window sill and watched as the vacant house beside mine slowly becomes occupied. I bit my finger nail nervously, eyes closed, anxiously praying this was a dream. It was only just a year ago I thought my miserable life was over. He had moved. But it seemed I was now out of luck. 

To make matters worse, he was now right across from me. I sighed and rested my forehead against the window, my frustration worsen.

"Stop staring," Madison snarled as she walked down the stairs. "I don't want them to think we're all creepy."

I rolled my eyes, sighing one more time. Just a few months until I was finished high school, why couldn't he return then?

Before I couldn't turn away, a black slick car pulled up behind the moving truck in the driveway. I narrowed my eyes as I tried to figure out the frames, quickly noting the one in the back.

Dirty blonde hair came out first, his long sleeve rolled up to his elbow over his Nike track pants. He closed the back door of the car, not waiting for the passengers in the front. I knew it was him immediately. My nightmare since grade three. First it was the pushing, then the teasing, then came the names. 

After we got to grade nine, he didn't have to do it anymore, his minions took over. Pretty soon I just stopped socializing with everyone. I kept to myself. And then he left. No one bothered me anymore. I stopped being laughed at, pointed at, and tormented. 

I even made friends. But I guess I can't have it all. I wanted to run across the driveway and set the house on fire; if there was no house, there would be nothing to move into.

Maddison opened the front door, walked over, and welcomed her friend. They have always been close, regardless of my discomfort. I couldn't help admire how his arms flexed as he wrapped them around her, his chiseled jaw relaxed as he laughed at something she said.

She turned to look at me, her middle finger going up. I faked being hurt, then rolled my eyes in boredom. Christain's attention turned in my direction, his brow pressed together in confusion when our eyes meet. Something seemed to flash across them as if changing colour.

I stared back at him, my body in shock. I examined his features and how much it's changed in the last year; that face appearing in both my dreams and nightmares. His ocean coloured eyes peered into mine, as if he was seeing me for the first time. Hate and love swarmed through my mind, mixing with my emotions.

His thin lips opened slightly as if he was about to say something. I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts.

"f**k you" I mouth as I turned away before he could say his hateful words up at the transparent glass. 

I hurried to my tiny room, closing the wooden door.

I sat on the floor against the door, wishing I had listened to my sister in the first place, and stopped watching. 

It wasn't hard to tell I was adopted. My skin tone was darker than my parents and sisters'. 

I have no memory on my old life before I was adopted, only that I was lucky; or so I've been told.

My parents travelled a lot and were rarely home. They wanted a play buddy for Maddison as she grew up, so here I was. They would never say it out loud but that was the reason why I was here; for them to feel better about adopting a dark skinned child, and for a permanent play friend for their adored daughter.

A knock sounded at my room door, bouncing off the small green walls. 

"Come downstairs" Maddison's voice rang behind the door.

"Why would I do that?" I snorted without humor.

"Cause mom said so" she argued defensively 

"I'm busy." I grumbled. I was going out there over my dead body.

"Doing what?" She challenged 

"Goodbye" I muttered, annoyed. I got up and crawled over to my bed, pulling the covers over my head.

I was never leaving this room again.